April 2020: 150 years since the Birth of Lenin
Lenin (born Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, 22 April 1870 – 21 January 1924) was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist, who served as head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 to 1924 and of the Soviet Union from 1922 to 1924.
Under his administration, Russia and then the wider Soviet Union became a one-party communist state governed by the Russian Communist Party. Ideologically a Marxist, he developed political theories known as Leninism.
After his death Lenin's body was embalmed to preserve it for long-term public display in the Red Square mausoleum. In July 1929, the Politburo agreed to replace the temporary mausoleum with a permanent granite alternative, which was finished in 1933. From 1941 to 1945 the body was moved from Moscow and stored in Tyumen for safety amid the Second World War. His body is still on public display in Lenin's Mausoleum on Red Square.
